Jeremy Lum, a Bellarmine College Prep alum and current faculty member of the all-boys Catholic school in San Jose, has written a play, “Taking Sides,” inspired by the massacre of seven Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador in 1989 and its aftermath.

Lum spent five years researching the tragedy and writing the play, which will get its first audience exposure with a staged reading Saturday at Bellarmine’s Black Box Theatre.

The reading is being directed by Santa Clara University grad Amelia Bethel, who is Salvadoran, and it’ll be performed by members of the Cardboard Box Theatre — a local group featuring SCU alumni — and Bellarmine alums. Of course, both Bellarmine and SCU are Jesuit institutions, so the subject matter resonates deeply for both campuses.

PARDON THE INTERRUPTION: The new location for the Target Summer Pops concerts in front of San Jose State’s iconic Tower Hall is terrific, except for one drawback: The tower’s bells play to mark every hour and nobody knows how to keep it from happening.

Conductor Peter Jaffe just rolled with it at Sunday’s “Wild Wild West” concert, pausing in the program and encouraging the audience to count the bell strikes at 6 o’clock. There are three concerts remaining this weekend, so you can still get in on the audience participation. The schedule for this weekend’s concerts is at www.symphonysiliconvalley.org.

GOOD DEED DEPartment: For the third year, Old Republic Title hosted kids from InnVision Shelter Network on Friday for a carnival at Bernal Park in San Jose. The event marks the end of a summer camp for the kids that’s sponsored by a host of other Silicon Valley companies. On top of games, a magic act, face painting and arts and crafts, the children also got to leave with backpacks filled with school supplies donated by Old Republic’s employees and clients.

And while the backpacks are important, I’ve got a feeling the kids enjoyed checking out the set of firefighter gear brought by the San Jose Fire Department and Fire Museum. They even got to use some of it in a relay race.

MORE SUDS: Beer lovers flocked to the Gordon Biersch brewery in San Jose’s Japantown Sunday for the kickoff event of Silicon Valley Beer Week, which paired various beers with gourmet bites from local restaurants. You can get a schedule of events at www.svbeerweek.com.

One of the best ways to take part, though, is the Beerwalk in downtown Campbell on Wednesday. Tickets, $30 in advance and $35 on the day of the event, can be purchased at www.thebeerwalk.com.

Sal Pizarro has written the Around Town column for The Mercury News since 2005. His column covers the people and events surrounding the cultural scene in Silicon Valley. In addition, he writes Cocktail Chronicles, a feature column on Silicon Valley bars and nightclubs.